An undated screengrab from a video released by U.S. forces on February 6, 2008. Al Qaeda videos seized by U.S. forces show Iraqi children younger than 11 carrying out mock kidnappings and attacks, the U.S. military and Iraqi officials said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Multi-National Force – Iraq/Handout
From The Australian:
Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, a US military spokesman, said five videos showing children being trained by adult militants were seized in a December 4 raid on a suspected al-Qaeda base in Khan Bani Saad, north of Baghdad.
“The operation was targeting two senior al-Qaeda individuals. During the operation two were detained and three were killed,” he said today.
There were no independent means to confirm the authenticity of the footage.
The videos released to reporters showed boys apparently as young as nine wearing balaclava masks and European football jerseys and brandishing pistols, machineguns and rocket launchers during a series of training exercises.
One scene shows the gang halting a civilian volunteer on a bicycle and submitting him to a mock kidnapping, holding a pistol to the base of his skull and pinning his hands behind his head.
The boys also practise halting a car and snatching its occupants, while in another scene, they run through an armed assault on a village house and storm out of a minibus brandishing weapons.
Rear Admiral Smith said it did not appear that the apparent child militants had been kidnapped or press-ganged.
He said investigations were continuing and none of the boys had been detained.
“As we watched the videos and watched the reaction with adults in the neighbourhood, it appears that it is a tribal series of families in which the adults are involved in training and it is their children,” he said.
“It’s just an assessment – we don’t have custody of those children.”
In recent weeks, US and Iraqi spokesmen have raised new concerns over al-Qaeda’s alleged use of children and the mentally impaired in suicide bombings, which Rear Admiral Smith called a “disturbing trend”.
The second video, of much lower quality, showed the rescue by Iraqi forces of a 10-year-old boy kidnapped in the northern city of Kirkuk by militants who demanded a ransom of $US1000 ($1115) from his parents.
The footage showed the weeping child reunited with his delighted parents.
Iraqi defence ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said the videos were a “sign of desperation by al-Qaeda” and claimed that children were trained to kidnap in order to raise funds from ransoms.
“This is a propaganda weapon designed to inspire emulation and recruit other children,” he said.
“Using children is disgusting.”
Rear Admiral Smith referred to two recent incidents in northern and western Iraq in which extremists sent 15-year-old boys to act as suicide bombers, and Mr Askari said two attacks last week in Baghdad were unwittingly carried out by disabled women.
The Jawa Report has the video
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
When the Nazi military began to recruit children we knew the end was near for that regime. Don’t know if we can say the same about this one, but one can hope.
Lurkin,
Unfortunately, these groups have been doing this for decades. The PLO is (in)famous for starting in kindergarten. Palestine Media Watch and MEMRI have a lot of archived text books, written works, photos, and videos of things like this.
Where is the howls of outrage from the pro peace movements?
Just arrived at my hotel in DC – will be reporting from CPAC shortly.
Skye, their silence is as deafening as their efforts have been successful.
• They failed to prevent the war in Afghanistan
• They failed to prevent the war in Iraq
• They failed to change power in the executive branch
• They failed to end the war in Iraq
• They were duped by Democrats in 2006 who promised “A New Direction In Iraq” without ever having even formed a committee to brainstorm ideas until 2 months after being elected.
• They failed to prevent The Surge offensive
• They failed to stop cannibals in the Congo [and were silent while 4-6million died as UN peacekeepers raped and sold children en masse]
• They failed to stop the bloodshed in Darfur
• They speak out against US forces trying to protect from terror
• They speak out the same rhetoric as the enemy’s propaganda
• They are silent in response to terrorist attacks
• They are openly embraced by Islamic holy warriors
• They have succeeded only in dividing the world’s one nation that has a chance at quelling global jihad
The movement’s core has revealed itself as little more than a catalyst for Bush hate and a draw issue to build political momentum for the Democratic Party. And while those who take part in the anti-Bush/anti-war/”peace movement” are clearly very comfortable with questioning all that stems from the Bush Administration or Republicans, they seem to lack the temerity to question those politicians who have used, abused, and misled them far worse than GWB ever has.
the world’s one nation that has a chance at quelling global jihad
Hah. If global jihad ever manages to pull itself together so that it’s more than a rabble of bombers, murderers, and semiliterate fanatics – if it becomes a serious threat to world trade and international stability – the Chinese would use bioweapons to end it. They’re not near as nice as we are. Luckily for the jihadis and the people that have the misfortune of living in their countries, they don’t seem organized enough to impel the Chinese to action – or to force us to actual war rather than our current, ridiculously expensive armed mission of mercy…
Bbartlog,
China and Russia are both under attack daily but they refuse to do much about it much less allow it to be known about.
Here is one source. Unfortunatly, it is difficult to get information out of the Chinese Police State.
http://www.terrorism.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Countries&file=index&view=51
under attack daily
The link you provide suggests something more on the order of annual attacks, though perhaps we can be generous and say monthly after factoring in the Chinese media censorship. Yes, I knew that Uighur separatists carried out bombings in the western provinces (though the presence of Taliban in China was news to me). But this does nothing to change my opinion that these guys pose no real threat to China. When pollution has a six or seven figure annual death toll it’s hardly surprising that the Chinese leadership does not consider these guys a priority. I think it will be interesting to see what happens in East Africa if the Islamists there actually manage to seriously impair Chinese access to resources.
True,
China’s rabid pollution (the USSR was the same and Russia shows little signs of improving), thier secret police and military, and the pure economic plight of Western Chinese (eastern Chinese being marginally better) makes death by terrorism look like a single cloud in a thunderstorm.
It will be interesting to watch China react to East African Islamists. Though China has reportedly already curtailed “the year of the pig” events to not anger Islamists.
2:11 into this clip you can view AN AMERICAN SOLDIER IN THE BACKGROUND! The youtube clip is here:
MORE BOGUS DISINFORMATION and this time the ZIONAZIS are using kids to stir fear.
Look past the commentary when you view any US propaganda…you will be amazed at what you will see!!
That’s not an American uniform or least not a new one. U.S. uniforms are a bluish grey. The U.S. gave their old uniforms to the Iraqis. It’s too blury to make out the design, but the two colors are common desert camouflage colors. It’s no recruiting tool either since these kids look scared rather than happy. Since these people were captured, at least thre it doesn’t look like Al Qaeda can stick around long enough to get their plans operational.
It never fails to amaze me when opponents of the war in Iraq post a link that actually debunks their own claims. It’s like someone trying to show how Russian Roulette is played using an automatic…not just a duh, but duhrrrrrrr.
[rolleyes]
Greg.
Actually ours are sage/grey in the Army, but on film it does look bluish at times. Woodland and Desert style BDUs are widely available worldwide, as are other patterns which look close. OBL even paraded in an old style US pattern field jacket for a while while carrying his unblemished, pristine AKM-P carbine.
As for the kids looking scared, you can see many more photos like these from the PLO/Hamas/Fatah/Hezbollah events. The kids may be scared and that is true, but I think they are terrified of the Islamists taking the pictures (i.e., “smile kid or we kill your family”). Hilter Youth had the same look.
As for our typically anti-semetic “Dreaded” troll. It is amazing that you have the intellectual incapacity to research these islamofascists groups yourself and understand who and what they are. It is disgusting that you lack the cognative ability and long term memory to know that the islamofascists (or Islamic ‘Holy Warriors’ if you wish) do this all the time. It is sad that you swallow the bile from the “anti-war” dhimmi groups. Are you also a troofer? Maybe a member of Stormfront? The “ZIONAZIS” bit does give you away a little and narrows it down to an “anti-war but death to Isreal and America”, Stormfront, or an islamofascist troll.
this is fuckin dat